A Visit from Our Patron: The Marquess of Salisbury Explores the River Colne Project

We were delighted to receive a visit from our patron, the Marquess of Salisbury on Monday 20 April.

He joined us for an insightful walk and talk along the bank of the River Colne near Knutsford Playing Fields and Radlett Road Playing Fields; to understand our projects and help enable further growth with our work. He took an active interest in our volunteer river fly session and helped identify some of the creatures from our water samples too.

It was a brilliant opportunity to introduce The Marquess to our Rediscovering the River Colne project where we shared our multi-faceted approach to river restoration. Our discussions also involved suitable development and community engagement focus of the Charity moving forwards.

Sam Harbour, Operations Manager

Also joining the walk were Dr Qudra Goodall, Researcher Social Anthropology, who leads a Knowledge Transfer Partnership project between the University of East Anglia, Innovate UK, and Groundwork East to develop a federation-wide community engagement model; Lara Hall Principal Landscape Architect, experienced in urban landscape design and project management; Carolyn Reid, our Chief Executive with a focus on building strong community foundations. Senior Project Officers Adam Asquith and Emily Evans ran a Citizen Science session, reviewing river fly populations and a general health check for the river water, with a couple of volunteers who helped capture the samples and count the diverse findings.

Rediscovering the River Colne is a groundbreaking 10-year project reconnecting residents with and restoring the River Colne, delivered in partnership with Watford Borough Council and other partners.